Matthew and Kendall take Italy

This past week my brother Matthew and I went to Rome and Florence while I had a week off of school.

First stop, Rome.

Accommodation: Youth Station Hostel, 3 nights.
We met at the hostel since we were both flying in from different parts of the world.
Once there, first thing was first, get real Italian pizza for dinner. And let me tell you it was delicious!

The next day we set out in the direction of the Colosseum where a lot of the interesting monuments are located.

Since the beauty is too much for words I'll try to show you...

Inside the Colosseum

Monument of Victor Emmanuel II (massive and soooo beautiful)

For lunch we had some over prices okay pasta at this small restaurant that took forever to bring our food.

Roman forum

For dinner we bought some frozen veggies and cooked at the hostel to save some money. Then later went went for some very reasonably priced gelato.

The next day while we were walking to the metro, Matthew informed me that he had decided to rent a scooter.  Of course I was all in because it was helping me fulfill my childhood dream of being Lizzie McGuire. So we got the scooter and were off in the direction of the Vatican.

In the Vatican we went into St. Peter's, of course, and ended up climbing to the top... I mean the VERY top.

the top of that dome ^  

                                                   the view from the top (over 600 steps)

After that we grabbed some paninis for lunch and then hopped back on the scooter to hit the major sites we hadn't seen yet.

Trevi Fountain

Pantheon 

For dinner we had some yummy Mexican food.. and of course margs (because Spain sucks and does not fulfill my weekly need for Mexican food).

The next day it was time to head to Florence so we hooped on a train, my first train to be exact.  Soon enough we were there.  Then we walked to our hotel (that Matthew booked with his fancy discount) which was so nice.  After we relaxed for a little bit we when to get some lunch at a nearby Kebab place which was AMAZING then we got on a bus to the city center.

I think the most notable landmark in Florence is the Duomo.  So of course that is what we went to see.   It is definitely different than other basilicas that I have seen, in that it actually has color and design on the OUTSIDE as well as the inside.  It is gorgeous.

Duomo

Basically the rest of Florence was full of just wandering around and walking into any building that we were allowed in. For this reason it all kinda of blurs together in Florence, we saw a lot of amazingly beautiful streets, buildings, and views.  Here are just a view of the pictures.  

Ponte Vecchio

View from Piazzale Michelangelo

Replica of David in Piazzale Michelangelo 

One of many cathedrals

 For me, though, one of the most exciting parts of Florence was the game of spotting the street art.  Specifically the sign art that Florence is famous for because of the artist Chet Abraham.  ...and we found a lot. Here are my results:

 So that's about it.
If you want to see more pictures I'll be adding them on Facebook very soon.
Two and a half more months till I'm back in the US!
Adios!